A LIVERPOOL youth group has asked TV bosses in London to ban smoking in soaps.
The young tobacco campaigners from D-MYST want to remove smoking from all pre-watershed television broadcasts, and they have recently been carrying out research into smoking in soaps such as Coronation Street.
The group discovered that smoking scenes frequently occur in both Coronation Street and Eastenders – with 82 smoking incidents in three weeks of programming.
Members of D-MYST visited media regulator Ofcom’s head office in London to present their findings and asked it to ban smoking images pre-watershed.
Anthony Farley from D-MYST said: “Ofcom’s own guidelines clearly state the use of smoking must not be condoned, encouraged or glamorised in programmes likely to be seen or heard by under-18s unless there is editorial justification.
“We think this would be a simple and really effective way of protecting young people, and are now waiting for Ofcom to come back to us with a proper response.”
